Top Chinese legislator calls for close Sino-Franco trade partnership

• Source: Xinhua
• [09:17 July 10 2010]
• Comments

The general duty level in China has dropped from 15.3 percent in 2002 to 9.8 percent in 2010, which is the lowest among developing countries, Wu said.

"A fair and open market competition environment has become mature day by day," he said.

China and France have done a lot of work in improving investment and trade environment, Wu said.

He urged both sides to continue improving market environment, facilitating bilateral trade and investment, strengthening cooperation between medium- and small-sized enterprises and enlarging the scale of bilateral trade and investment.

Wu also urged the EU to recognize the status of China's market economy as early as possible, turn around discriminating import control policies against China, and ease high-tech products export bans.

He also emphasized the need to insist on free trade principles and oppose any form of trade protectionism, adding that both countries should give full play to the Joint Sino-French Trade and Economic Committee as well as other mechanisms to properly handle problems surfaced during working with each other and to create good and more convenient environment for trade cooperation.

France is the first leg of Wu's three-nation Europe tour, which will also take him to Serbia and Switzerland.